Relevant content is just the enabler: Ankoor Dasguupta

First, let me pose a question – Do we all always look at What, Why, When, and How while doing anything? I’d be pleasantly surprised if we all did. The reason I started with this question (and I ask myself this question almost every day) is that it is extremely crucial to do experiments that yield to better numbers. While talking to industry folks, I still see a gap in the way we define and measure engagement on social media. And well, gaps are at times also necessary to keep debating and arriving at what is working for which brand and why. ‘Social networking’ is seeming to get in a thin line with ‘social media’ which is becoming more about content and less about connecting. The whole premise of connecting and building relationships gave way to the broadcasting of information with no real aim of building trust and loyalty. And the 2 paradigm shifts over the past years have been – the touch points for consumers have increased while the attention span is shorter than a goldfish.

Data tells. But how do we know we are mapping the data in the ‘most relevant’ way? The good part, the math is in place, However, is it not time that we question status-quo? For example, is a ‘like’ on a post an engagement? Or should it be only ‘mentions’ and ‘shares’?  Organic and Paid efforts are 2 sides of the same coin and not looking at both sides, may not yield. Hence looking at the holistic picture of the effort is also important to bring in optimal results for a campaign. However, even before that, the underlying thought (most crucial) is building Trust, and getting it stronger is an uphill task that leads to loyalty and advocacy (thinking of the marketing Flywheel while I write this); however, only a few instances are enough to break that trust. Looking at strangers to prospects to customers who become advocates, will only get more important from here.

Having shared some context, here I am to share what may be nothing new, but, to state how important I feel some of the existing trends are going to get even stronger in the Digital ecosystem. 

Here are my top 4 -

1|Conversations as the Okazaki fragments

Marketers will be focussing more on Conversations along with creating and enriching experiences, rather than only Content. Take a moment and put yourself into your customer’s shoes. Why are customers increasingly using social media too?

• Discover new brands and products
• Research product features and reviews
• Make buying decisions 
• Ask support questions or lodge complaints

Because of this, they expect to be able to converse with the brands they’re reaching out to. In a nutshell, they want to speak with your brand digitally with just as much ease as they would in a brick-and-mortar store. Hence ‘conversations’ is going to be the Okazaki stands.

2| Bringing Differentiated Value

The pursuit must be to create a differentiated value for the brand, that stands out in some way to translate into carving a niche in the ‘mind space’ of the consumer. That is possible with broadly 2 things. Firstly, the narrative has ‘the ability’ to tell a story that is long-lived than short-lived, and secondly, real-time communication that could be powered by technologies such as AI-powered two-way chat. 

When my late grandfather used to tell me stories, he used to make me the protagonist of the story and I used to keep looking forward each night for him to tell me those stories (I still remember some of them). Likewise, make the consumer the hero concerning your offering and how the consumer will benefit from your offering rather than just throwing a post that asks him/her to convert, and then worst of it, keep retargeting that person!

AI-powered chat and Natural Language Processing (NLP) can understand the intent behind a consumer’s message and respond instantly, making 2-way conversations between businesses and customers possible 24/7, even when humans are not online to help. 

Image courtesy of this two-way chat: Marketingdive

3| Personalization 

Let me share my perspective on this most talked about topic and yet we see only some getting it right. The reason is this still has scope to evolve.

My 3 favourite movie directors of all time are Satyajit Ray and Wong Kar-wai and Abbas Kiarostami. Not from today but since my high school days. Only one reason – their legendary talent to treat each of their audience and one single person while paying attention to extreme details. 

I believe the days of finer details of understanding your audience across social media are going to get stronger with deeper personalization and conversational marketing. With conversational marketing, brands can collect relevant data by asking customers about various preferences which brings in deeper relevancy for customers by hyper-personalized recommendations in real time to build an even more relevant campaign.

The fact is mobile messaging is intimate. When we access this privileged space, we must respect the same tone of a friend which stems from bringing in relevancy first. Let’s not forget that brands are built on the experiences they provide.

4| Podcasters – Turning to Long-Form Video on YouTube

Let me start with what will it solve. This will solve one of the hardest pieces about podcasting—how to get people to discover your show.

I recently read somewhere, that I believe in that the future of YouTube seems shining for marketers and content creators, not just because it's the home for long-form video, but because of the other content types that will be prominently featured on the platform. Namely, short-form videos and podcasts.

Short-form videos already exist on the platform as YouTube Shorts, however, in early 2023, we could expect to see a big push for Shorts due to YouTube having already announced a major revenue share (at 45%) with Shorts creators. This program will mimic their proven YouTube Partnership Program for regular videos, which could take a ripple effect across the globe.

The icing on the cake is YouTube is improving its discovery algorithm constantly and is likely to be a deeper focus on how Shorts can help recommend and cross-promote a channel's long-form videos, too. 

There’ll be a rush of podcasters turning on their cameras and adding long-form podcast episodes to their YouTube channels. 

To summarise, I believe that fine-tuning content relevance and targeted distribution, utilising modern PR tools, clever audience segmentation, and creative outreach are some of the most significant innovations in the last decade.